Yahoo annouced serveral items today

1. YaHoo is going to start streaming CBS television shows online for at no cost to viewers.

2. Yahoo! has entered into a strategic, multi-year relationship for online display and video advertising with Walmart.com. Yahoo! also becomes the exclusive portal to resell Walmart.com’s display inventory.

Yahoo will serve as the primary marketing and sales channel for Wallmart.com, and provide the site’s display and video advertising. Yahoo! will also apply its ad-serving, targeting and inventory management capabilities to power ad pricing, targeting, delivery and reporting for Walmart.com. The site will ultimately become a participant in AMP! from Yahoo!, the recently announced advertising management platform that will become available to publishers later this year.

3. Yahoo announced the launch of the Yahoo! Circular Program, enabling retailers to deliver personalized newspaper circulars directly to consumers across the Yahoo! network based on their interests.

Retailers will now be able to reach potential shoppers among Yahoo!’s 140 million monthly unique U.S. audience^, more efficiently and with greater precision than ever before by harnessing Yahoo!’s Smart Ads technology which automatically generates customized advertising based on users’ preferences.

The program is intended to supplement existing newspaper-based marketing programs for retailers by delivering other key benefits like incremental reach, cost efficiency, flexibility in regional pricing and product availability, as well as the opportunity to deliver advertising throughout the week, not just on Sundays when circulars appear most often.

“The largest driver of in-store traffic for retailers has traditionally been the print circular, and the Yahoo! Circular program is designed to enhance that,” said Steven Feuling, category development officer for Yahoo! Inc. “Harnessing our deep insight into user interests, Yahoo! can help retailers speak to consumers on a level that is more personal and engaging by putting just the right products and marketing messages in front of an interested shopper at just the right time.”

As part of the program, Yahoo! Circulars will be powered by content from ShopLocal, the leader in multi-channel shopping and advertising services. ShopLocal helps retailers drive in-stores sales by converting their local print promotions and Sunday circulars into engaging and dynamic online formats. Yahoo! will take these localized promotions one step further by presenting personalized promotions to consumers across the breadth of the Yahoo! Network.

“The online circular has been a huge success with our clients and their customers,” said Vikram Sharma, CEO of ShopLocal. “Enabling our clients to distribute their circulars with Yahoo! in a personalized manner and with increased reach, will offer the retail industry unprecedented opportunities.”

Yahoo! has used its Smart Ads platform in other categories such as Travel and Autos, and has recently tested the technology with a select group of retailers nationwide. The company plans to expand the entire Yahoo! Circular Program to additional retailers in the coming months.

4. Yahoo and Havas Digital, one of the world’s leading interactive agencies, announce a global partnership that encompasses all of the operating units within Havas Digital.

Under the terms of the agreement, Havas Digital will work with the Right Media Exchange to develop a proprietary media trading platform based on Yahoo!’s technology. To better serve their customers and extend its advertising platform, Havas Digital plans to be an early adopter of AMP! from Yahoo! which significantly simplifies the process of buying and selling ads online. AMP! from Yahoo! is due to roll out beginning with members of the Newspaper Consortium in Q3 2008. This important relationship will also include a partnership between Yahoo! and Havas Digital’s Centers of Excellence to build a global outsourcing practice, based in India and Brazil, for digital advertising leveraging the Right Media Exchange.

Havas Digital will help to grow the Exchange by bringing new advertisers and publishers to the ecosystem across many markets. In addition, the parties will develop global training resources to facilitate Exchange participation.

5.  Yahoo said that 94 more newspapers have joined its industry-leading partnership with U.S. local newspapers, bringing the total number of newspapers in the Newspaper Consortium to 779.

Since its launch in November 2006, the Newspaper Consortium has more than quadrupled in size, comprising 32 companies and representing 41 percent of all Sunday circulation.

Yahoo!’s new partner companies in the Newspaper Consortium are: the Sun-Times News Group, with its flagship paper, the Chicago Sun-Times, and 70 newspapers in the Chicago area; the Journal Sentinel with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Canada-based Black Press with the Akron Beacon Journal and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin; Stephens Media Group with 11 dailies, including the Las Vegas Review Journal; Independent Newspapers, publisher of the Delaware State News in Dover; and Yankton Media Inc., publisher of Yankton Daily Press and Dakotan.

The Newspaper Consortium initially focused on providing its original 176 member newspapers with a powerful local and national recruitment network through Yahoo! HotJobs. It has since expanded to provide member newspapers with the opportunity to leverage Yahoo!’s advertising platform technology, and with the ability for the newspapers’ sales force to sell Yahoo! inventory to their local clients. Member newspapers can also integrate Yahoo!’s paid search technology across their sites.

Among the Newspaper Consortium’s achievements in the 18 months since its launch are:

• Nearly 600 newspapers have partnered with Yahoo! HotJobs as their exclusive online recruitment solution, including major dailies in Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
• Currently more than 50 newspapers are participating in a pilot program selling DMA-targeted Yahoo! inventory to local advertisers.
• Nearly 150 newspaper sites have launched with Yahoo! search products.
• Newspaper sites now receive more than 10 million referrals a month from the distribution of news headlines across the Yahoo! network and through its services, including the Yahoo! home page, My Yahoo! and Yahoo! Instant Messenger.
• More than 2,500 newspaper sales representatives have participated in sales training sessions provided by Yahoo!.